By Abubakar Yunusa
Cryptocurrency trading platform, Binance, has asked Nigerians trading on its exchange to withdraw all their naira assets, indicating that it is discontinuing its services in the country.
In a bid to tackle the high level of instability in the forex market, the Federal Government had cracked down on Binance executives.
On Tuesday, it removed all assets associated with the naira amid a clampdown by Nigerian authorities on the platform.
“Users are encouraged to withdraw NGN, trade their NGN assets or convert NGN into crypto prior to the discontinuation of these NGN services,” the platform said.
Binance said from “2024-03-08 08:00 (UTC), any remaining NGN balances in users’ Binance accounts will be automatically converted to USDT based on the conversion rate.”
This comes after the government blamed Binance for being responsible for triggering the problems in the Nigeria FX market.
On Monday, the House of Representatives threatened to issue a warrant of arrest on the company’s Chief Executive Officer, Mr Changpeng Zhao.
This followed no response from representatives, who were asked to appear before its committee.
Ginger Onwusibe, chairman of the committee, said members of the panel had resolved “not to entertain” any representatives apart from the executives of Binance.
“Binance is not here. We have taken a position on it in our last sitting that we are not going to entertain legal representation from Binance and that position stands,” Onwusibe said.
Binance executives had not appeared before the committee because two employees, who were to appear at the meeting, were arrested upon their arrival in Nigeria by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) last week.
This comes amidst ongoing rancour with the Nigerian government over Binance operations in the country.
The crypto platform is being accused of manipulating the country’s currency leading to its steady fall against other currencies. Some of its executives are also currently being detained by the Nigerian government.
